Premium
Use of melatonin to treat sleep disorders in tuberous sclerosis
Author(s) -
O'Callaghan F J K,
Clarke A A,
Hancock E,
Hunt A,
Osborne J P
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1999.tb00564.x
Subject(s) - melatonin , tuberous sclerosis , medicine , sleep (system call) , crossover study , placebo , sleep disorder , randomized controlled trial , sleep onset , pediatrics , psychology , insomnia , psychiatry , pathology , alternative medicine , computer science , operating system
The results of a therapeutic trial of the use of melatonin in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex who also have severe sleep problems are reported. We used a randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled crossover design. Seven patients with confirmed diagnoses of tuberous sclerosis and significant sleep disorder were recruited. We employed three outcome measures: total sleep time, time to sleep onset, and number of awakenings. Patients treated with melatonin had a small but clinically significant improvement in total sleep time (mean improvement 0.55 hours, P<0.05). They also tended to have an improvement in sleep‐onset time but this did not reach statistical significance. Melatonin, in this trial, had no discernible effect on sleep fragmentation. We conclude that melatonin does have a beneficial effect in prolonging the total sleep time of patients with tuberous sclerosis and sleep disorder and that further trials are necessary to investigate the issues of optimal dosage, tolerance, and possible interactions with other medications.